SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF INDIA.

Evening Star, Issue 21656, 27 February 1934, Page 8

SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF INDIA.

A' “ nous old fraud ” is the name which has been given by Hindus to Gandhi since he has turned from political agitation, promising beuehts that must be chiefly confined to theory, to social reforms such as raising the condition of the “ untouchables.” “ Impious old fraud,” it is to bo surmised, would more truly express their feelings when he deals with this last great question. The revulsion of the masses against a popular idol when lie ceases to go their way might suggest that, under his skin, the Hindu is much the same as Western peoples. The strength of the caste system -recalls his profound differences. A past member of the editorial staff of the ‘ Times of India,’ writing in a leading review, explains why the system is held so sacred, and how another disability is bound up with it. Of the two principles on which it is based, wo are told, the first is the doctrine of Karma, which maintains that a man is horn into the position which he has earned by his con-

duct in a previous incarnation. Consequently it is every man’s duty to accept the status to which ho is born and to accept irregularities of rights and duties. The second principle, that of the religious unity of the family, emphasises community or group feeling as opposed to individualism, and accounts for the joint family system and the subordinate position of Hindu women. The poverty which oppresses millions in India, and is made more threatening by an ever-increasing population, forms one of the greatest problems, and in no small measure it is contributed to by the caste system. Caste enters into every economic activity, even determining the stages and methods of production. It directly rules the choice of occupations, which are followed as inherited callings and not as means to greater prosperity. That explains not only the prevalent lack of enterprise, but also, because intercaste co-operation is impossible, the enormous waste of labour. Caste, on the other hand, working through the family, enables several generations to pool their earnings and to suffer the turns of fortune in common, so that, except during famines, organised poor relief is unnecessary. The British Government can do nothing to alter caste, and very little to improve the position of women. It" it wore not alien no Government in effecting social reforms can move faster than the public opinion of its subjects. The Raj is limited also by the provision, on which its authority rests by consent, that there shall be no interference with religious practices. The opinion is expressed that probably illiteracy is the greatest obstacle to Indian progress. The Government attempts to spread education despite financial difficulties, but all that it does will be hardly sufficient to bring about nation-wide literacy in the next hundred years. For the slow progress of primary education, we are informed, the people are partly responsible, since they do not appreciate its advantages. Nevertheless, official campaigns for rural reorganisation, involving instruction in better methods of farming and healthier ways of living, with more education, have in two provinces, Bombay and the Punjab, made promising progress. All improvements are retarded at present by the trade depression which makes the lowest prices for products, but when politics are no longer put first a degree of co-operatio . may bo forthcoming between the people and a Government in which they will have more representation that will lessen the strength of many existing difficulties.